


Lord Help the Mister

by Ray_Writes



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hints of Lauriver, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mentioned Rape of a Minor Character, Multi, Pre-Season/Series 01, Vigilante Laurel Lance, Vigilante Sara Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22119871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_Writes/pseuds/Ray_Writes
Summary: Laurel's surprise visit to the docks prevents Sara from boarding theQueen's Gambit, changing both sisters and their city forever.
Relationships: Laurel Lance & Sara Lance, Sara Lance/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 59





	Lord Help the Mister

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so to start off this year, I ended up working on a sort of plot bunny idea for the Lance sisters, whose dynamic is one I certainly have a lot of feelings about. I wanted to write a story that shows them confronting that initial hurt and healing together – and still becoming the heroes they are because of it. As a result, there’s this story, the title of which comes from a line in the song “Sisters” in the film _White Christmas_.  
> If I ever continue it, there’s a lot I want to do (delving into Tommy’s altered character arc prime on the list – yes, he is meant to be very OOC from canon by the time he becomes relevant to the story), but I’ve marked it complete for now. At any rate, I hope you like this glimpse into a what-if, and I hope 2020 has started off well for you all. Many thanks to Kylia for beta-reading, and thanks to you all for reading as well!

Oliver walked down the dock and boarded his father’s yacht. When he went up on the deck, Laurel was still standing there, watching. She’d only moved to stand by his mother, and the two beside each other filled him with warmth even as something twisted his heart.

It wasn’t a something, really. He knew exactly what it was: guilt.

_You really just lied to her face like that?_

He wasn’t exactly a stranger to lying, sure, but this felt different. The longer he watched Laurel standing there, the more his whole plan just felt wrong. Why couldn’t he have just told her he wasn’t ready to move in together? Wouldn’t that have just been easier?

Oliver felt his phone ring. He took it out, wincing as he glanced at the caller ID. “Hey, Sara.”

“ _Is it safe yet?”_

“Uh, no. Your sister still hasn’t left. I think she’s planning to watch the boat leave.”

“ _What? Ollie, tell her to go!”_

“I’m already on board, and I can’t tell her to go without her finding out why.” He looked back down at the photo Laurel had given him. God, she was so earnest and giving. Why’d he have to be such a screw-up? “I don’t think this was such a good idea.”

“ _You’re kidding.”_

“No. Think about it for a second. Laurel would’ve been furious.”

“ _And I’m suddenly supposed to care about that? You asked_ me _to come with you, not her.”_

“Because I was- I wasn’t thinking, Sara, I don’t know what to tell you. I love Laurel. I shouldn’t have asked you to do this, it would crush her.”

She scoffed on the other end of the line. _“Fine. Have fun screwing yourself on your stupid boat.”_

She hung up.

The crew called out a last check before pushing off and Oliver wandered down below deck to his room, not quite able to meet his mother or Laurel’s parting wave. They’d both be so disappointed if they knew what he’d almost done.

His dad came and found him some time later. “Hey, son. Whatever happened to that secret passenger I wasn’t supposed to tell your mom about?”

Oliver sighed. “I, uh, called it off.”

His dad nodded. “Good idea. I can tell you, that sort of thing never ends well.”

He kept his eyes on his shoes, sheepish that his father knew completely what he’d been planning. So he was surprised when a hand clapped his shoulder.

“You know, there have been a few things I’ve regretted over the years. Your mother is a good woman and stood by me despite it, but I won’t lie and say the road to forgiveness is easy. Best to start asking for it sooner than later.”

“Forgiveness?” Yet as he sat there, it hit him like a bucket of ice water dumped over the head.

Laurel _would_ find out. Angry as Sara was with him, what reason would she have to keep it to herself? She said she didn’t care if her sister hated her.

A cold sweat broke out over him. Oliver got his phone out after his dad left him alone, but there was no signal. They were out of range.

He fell face-first into the mattress. What was he going to do?

\---

Laurel noticed her mother’s car sitting in the driveway as she came up the front walk and through the front door of her parents’ home. “Mom?”

“Is that you, Laurel?” Her mother looked up briefly from a stack of papers at the kitchen table. Then she buried her head back in the grading. “How was your day?”

“Fine, I guess. I went down to see Ollie off since he’s leaving for three weeks.” Laurel slumped against the kitchen archway at just the thought. She’d finally found them a really nice apartment, too. She supposed she could just sign the lease and surprise him; he was always doing stuff like that for her with his family’s money. Why not?

“...you did?”

It was the nervous undercurrent to her mother’s voice that pulled her from her musings. “Yeah, why?”

“Oh, no reason.”

Before Laurel could reply, the front door opened and slammed. “Where is she?”

Laurel spun around as her sister rounded the corner. She first noticed the tear tracks on her sister’s cheeks followed by the glare in her eyes. “Sara?”

“Thanks a lot. You know, this is the second time you’ve ruined my life with your goody two-shoes act!”

Laurel backed up a step. “What?”

“Why’d you have to go down and be all cutesy with him? He doesn’t even deserve it! I _tried_ to warn you—”

“Sara, sweetheart, why don’t you go unpack?” Their mother suggested pointedly.

“What are you talking about?” Laurel demanded instead.

“I was supposed to get on that boat!” Sara cried, throwing her suitcase down in between them. “Ollie invited me, because he wanted to be with _me._ ”

Laurel’s heart dropped into her stomach. She shook her head. “No. He- he wouldn’t do that.” But it was all there, the suitcase, Sara knowing she’d been down at the dock. What else would she even be doing home when she was supposed to have classes?

“Well, he did. Then he got cold feet because you had to hang around so I couldn’t board. Don’t you get he just doesn’t love you? You should have let me stay at that party instead of getting me in trouble so I could—”

“So you could break my heart?” The shock was giving way now, or maybe it was really just settling in, and Laurel felt herself shaking. “You were going to sleep with my _boyfriend?_ ”

“He’s hardly yours,” Sara scoffed. “I _tried_ to warn you about him.”

“You didn’t warn me about anything! To warn me, you would’ve needed to tell me what a backstabbing bitch of a sister you are!”

“It should’ve been me and him in the first place!”

One or the other of them lunged first, and then Laurel’s back hit the wall as she slapped and punched at every bit of her sister she could reach.

“I stood up for you when those girls in school said you were stealing their boyfriends. Guess I should’ve just let them at it!”

“Fine, you play the victim! I don’t even feel sorry for you!”

Their mom’s chair scraped back. “Girls! Girls, don’t!”

She didn’t know when he arrived, but over all the screaming and Sara pulling on her hair, their father’s voice boomed. “What the _hell_ is going on?”

They were pulled apart, and their dad rested his hands on his belt as he looked at them each in turn.

“Laurel called me a bitch!” Sara blurted.

“Well, that’s what you get for trying to sleep with my boyfriend!”

“Aw, Jesus, this is about Queen?” Her dad dragged a hand down his face. To her rising irritation, he looked at her with a frown. “Honey, I’ve said he’s no good for you.”

“Well, I guess he’s plenty good enough for Sara, then,” Laurel snapped. “Since she ditched school to sneak off on a trip for three weeks.”

At last, he rounded on her younger sister. “You what?”

Sara pushed back her messed-up bangs to glare at her. “Always the tattle-tale.”

“You deserve it! What were you thinking?”

“Mom said it was okay!”

They all froze. When she and their dad turned to look, their mother was standing there eyes wide and mouth agape.

“I- I only meant — well, she said she was in love.”

This had to be some kind of nightmare. “And that made it okay to go behind my back?”

“Of all the irresponsible,” her dad muttered at the same time. “Dinah, we’re not throwing both our daughters over to this jackass!”

Laurel nearly protested on Oliver’s behalf out of automatic habit — but then, what was he really if he had nearly done this to her? Her breath hitched, and she turned and fled the kitchen instead.

Her father started to follow. “Laurel, honey, we need to talk about this. As a family—”

“No! I don’t even know if this is a family anymore!” Laurel slammed her door and threw herself onto her bed. Alone, she finally let her sobs out.

How could they? Her mom, Sara, Oliver — they all were planning to just drive a knife into her heart.

He’d held her in his arms and kissed her, taken the photo she’d given him. Was he just planning to toss it in the ocean the minute her back turned? She’d known he didn’t always make the right choices, but she’d thought he could at least be _honest_ with her about them.

And Sara! Her own baby sister, who fought with her at times but who Laurel loved more than most anyone. She’d always done her best to help her father keep Sara out of trouble, to keep her from going too far. This was how her sister chose to repay her for that?

Her mom… she’d always gotten along better with Sara than with Laurel. But to tell Sara to just go behind her back like that? And to try and hide it? She couldn’t believe it!

Her whole life felt like a cruel joke. Did anyone truly care about her or were they all just lying to her face? Was she really just that naive?

She was burning with anger and took out her phone — but no, she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of hearing her break down over him. Laurel threw it at the wall instead, not really caring if it broke. She didn’t care for much of anything right now.

Her tears continued as she fell into a fitful sleep. Laurel didn’t even have the energy to get up and change into something more comfortable. She just lay there, not able to see any way past this anger and loss swirling inside her.

All her plans in life had involved the people she loved, and it turned out they hadn’t wanted to be in it.

\---

Sara nearly rolled her eyes as she heard Laurel’s door slam, but the look on her father’s face as he came back into the room stopped her.

She’d never seen him look that disappointed before. What he said, however, was, “This is my fault.”

“It is?” Sara couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t in trouble? That would be the best news she’d heard all day ever since Oliver broke things off and claimed he still loved her sister.

“Yes, because of how I’ve raised you. I’ve made excuses for your behavior for years, bent the rules, called in favors to keep you from being punished.” He drew in a deep breath through his nose. “But that ends today.”

“Quentin—” her mother said.

“It has to be done, Dinah, and I’m not too sure of your ability to do it.” He stared her mom down for a moment, then looked back at Sara, who was starting to tremble a little. “So here’s how it’s gonna be for a while. You’re grounded.”

She breathed out slowly. She’d been expecting that and knew how to work around it. Whenever she went back to campus, it would hardly matter anyway.

“And I mean grounded,” her father continued. “No sneaking out, no getting your mother to cover for you. If I catch you breaking this, it’ll be far worse for you, young lady. I will take your phone if that’s what it takes.”

“Then how am I supposed to get in touch with you at college?”

“Well, that’s the thing, Sara. You skipped class to come down here. You were gonna miss, what, three more weeks?” He shook his head. “That’s four weeks worth of classes, of the money we paid for them, you just walked out on. That’s a failing grade in some of those classes, isn’t it?”

“I was gonna ask for extensions on the assignments,” she told him.

“You wouldn’t have gotten them. You’d have flunked, like that flunkie on his yacht. So, if you wanna flunk out of college, I’ll do you one better: you’re getting withdrawn from school.”

Sara gaped at him. “Dad!”

“Quentin, that’s ridiculous!” Her mother marched forward between them. “You’d be derailing her life, her chance at a career—”

“She’s derailing it just fine without my help!” He argued back. “I want her to think long and hard about what’s important to her before we go throwing more money at something she’s not invested in!”

“Daddy, please, that’s all my friends and- and my job’s near campus,” Sara reminded him.

“There are plenty of bars in Starling, Sara. And plenty of other work, too. I don’t like doing this,” he said to them both. “But it’s clear I haven’t kept a close enough eye on you. So until I can be sure you’ll take things seriously and appreciate their worth, you’re going to be staying here at home.”

Sara’s eyes stung with tears but she did her best to hold them back. Yeah, she hadn’t been crazy passionate about graduating and getting a real job, but who was? And she was almost twenty, so it was her choice what she did at college even if her parents helped pay for it, wasn’t it?

Okay, maybe they got a bit of a say. But couldn’t she just take an extra semester or something to get through it? Write this one off and pretend it never happened? Except according to her dad, that stuff wasn’t going to fly anymore, which frightened her more than anything. She’d gotten used to getting bailed out.

Her punishment apparently wasn’t over as he added, “You’re also gonna take over Laurel’s chores for three weeks.”

“Wait, what? How’s _that_ fair?”

“Because I taught her to look out for you all these years, and when you should’ve been looking out for her you didn’t. The minute that cheat approached you, you should have told her the truth, or come to me if you were scared. Instead, you’ve really hurt her, Sara. You both have,” he said, shooting her mom a look as well, who bowed her head. “And I don’t know how this is gonna get fixed. But it can start with you taking on some of her responsibilities for a while.”

“Anything else?” She asked in a dull tone. She was so sick of talking about this and just wanted to head back to her room.

“I think so. We’ll see how this goes.” Her father came forward and placed both hands on her shoulders. “I love you, Sara. I wouldn’t be doing any of this if I didn’t. I’d just cut you loose if I thought you were some kind of lost cause. But I really think this can be a learning experience for us both.”

“Yeah, fine,” she said, unwilling to meet his eyes. She pulled away and took her suitcase with her back down the hall.

As she passed by Laurel’s room, she could hear her sister’s sobs. Sara paused, her insides seeming to squirm uncomfortably for a moment. Then she forced herself on.

She couldn’t believe she was supposed to be on a private yacht headed across the open sea right now, and instead her life was basically over.

Sara didn’t see much of Laurel over the next day. Her sister didn’t seem to be leaving her room much. Her mom was also at work at the University, but any thoughts about using that opportunity to get out of the house came to a screeching halt when she realized her father was home for the day. That was probably by design.

He told her the chores she was doing today, which seemed like way too many to her view, and she was set to work. At some point, he called her in for lunch, and they ate together in near silence. He left to take a plate to Laurel’s room, then came back and announced they were doing the dishes together. Sara tried not to grumble as she stood with a dish towel in her hand waiting to dry plates and other things, knowing that would probably just make her grounding worse.

Their kitchen TV was on in the background as they worked, and that’s when she heard it.

“ _A mayday transmission was heard, but so far there has been no trace of the "Queen's Gambit." Among those missing are local residents Robert and Oliver Queen.”_

Sara whirled around to face the television, her jaw slack with shock. “What?”

She and her father both gave up on cleaning as they watched the report. The Coast Guard confirmed that some wreckage had been spotted indicating the boat’s total destruction in a storm. So far, no survivors had been found.

“Oh my God, oh my _God,_ ” Sara said to herself over and over. She’d sat in one of the kitchen chairs at some point and didn’t think she could trust herself to stand.

“I’m gonna have to break the news to your sister,” her father muttered grimly. He left the room again.

Sara kept staring at the news, thinking about the little splinters of the boat that she’d nearly boarded. If Laurel hadn’t been standing there in her way, she would have gotten on it without hesitation.

Her feet carried her down the hall where she saw her father standing in the doorway. Laurel stood on the other side, a hand over her mouth and eyes red-rimmed.

“He was a cheater and a liar, honey, no use wasting your tears over. And since all that’s gone and buried itself in the ocean, could you bring yourself to talk to your sister?”

“About what?”

“About moving past all this? We nearly could’ve lost her, you know?”

Laurel’s eyes flashed with anger. “So because she almost got herself killed, _I’m_ the one who has to apologize? I can’t believe this!”

Laurel’s door slammed again and Sara flinched. When her dad turned back to look at her, though, she squared her shoulders and marched off. Like hell she was apologizing first!

So maybe getting on the _Gambit_ would’ve been stupid, but that was for totally unrelated reasons. Laurel was totally ignoring how much she was hurting in favor of her own heartbreak over the man _Sara_ loved — even if he’d told her he loved Laurel. It was all just confusing and messed up and she hated thinking about it the longer it went on.

Later as she was cleaning the bathrooms — Jesus, how many chores did Laurel _do?_ — Sara heard the front door open and her father’s voice. She poked her head out into the hall.

“...was hoping to see Laurel. I wanted to make sure she was alright, or as best as she can be under the circumstances,” said Mrs. Queen, dressed in black from the little Sara could see of her behind her dad. Her stomach turned.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea at all,” her father responded, and Sara nearly called out because _no, Daddy, please!_

“May I ask why?”

“I hate to speak ill of the dead, but your boy was planning to rope my youngest into a little tryst to have some fun behind Laurel’s back. Now they won’t speak to each other, and I have to consider that a small miracle since it could’ve ended with my Sara being dead. So I’d appreciate it if you and yours stayed well away from my family from now on.”

Mrs. Queen had blinked in shock and stepped back. Then her head lowered. “I see. I can honestly tell you I had no idea he was… I’m sorry for what this has done to your family. If I knew anything about my son, it’s that he did it thoughtlessly. Perhaps that’s worse. I- I wish he hadn’t. He cared so much about Laurel and — well.” Mrs. Queen looked up again, eyes watery. “I’m glad for your sakes that Sara is safe, and please express my condolences to Laurel regardless. If I could ask one favor—”

“And what’s that?” Her dad asked.

“Please don’t make this information public. I’d hate to see your family in the tabloids, and Thea… I’d like for her to be able to remember her brother for what he could have been, not as he was.”

Sara’s stomach turned over and she shut herself back in the little bathroom.

That could’ve been _her_ mother dressed in black making excuses for her with the people she’d wronged. _Her_ sister having to choose the bits and pieces of her to keep in her memory. _Her_ father trying to shield her name and her reputation from the scandal-hungry press.

And she could’ve just been the ‘thoughtless’ footnote in Oliver Queen’s story.

God, she’d been so _stupid._ Sara’s back hit the wall and she slid down, her arms coming around her knees as she shook and cried. She had nearly gotten herself killed, and all for a boy who hadn’t really loved her. He’d just been using her to have some fun or hurt her sister — and Sara had gone right along with it, believing her sister to be the enemy. Her own sister, who probably couldn’t stand the sight of her now!

“Sara?”

Two arms came around her and she stiffened, but Laurel held on.

Her voice wavered so badly she had to try a couple times to speak. “What- what are you doing?”

“I heard Mrs. Queen at the door. And then you,” Laurel told her. “I thought you’d hurt yourself.”

“I almost did. Almost- almost got myself _killed._ ” Sara squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see Laurel’s condemning gaze. “It would’ve served me right.”

“Sara, don’t say that.”

“Why not?” She sniffled. “Look, I’ll talk to dad about- about moving out, so you don’t have to see me anymore. You can pretend I died out there like you want to.”

“But I _don’t_ want to.”

Sara froze. “You don’t?”

“No, of course not. I could never wish you were dead. Even as mad as you make me sometimes.” Sara felt her sister rub her back, and there was a weight on top of her head as Laurel rested her cheek there. “You’re Sara-bear.”

Sara sniffled again, and then broke down.

“I’m so sorry, Laurel!” She cried into her sister’s shoulder. “I shouldn’t have — you, you deserved the truth. You’re more important than some stupid boy and I- I feel _awful._ ”

Her eyes felt heavy and her head pounded, but at last Sara cried herself out. She rested there, clutching onto Laurel just as her sister was holding her.

There were tears leaking into her hair, so she knew at least she wasn’t alone in crying. Somehow that made it better.

\---

Laurel wished she could just stop crying. It was amazing that she still could after almost two days straight. But seeing Sara like this always tore at something in her. She hadn’t been able to ignore her sister crying, as much as she’d tried to tell herself Sara deserved it.

Laurel still felt conflicted. It was hard to ignore _why_ they were both crying. It wasn’t out of simple grief for Oliver, after all. Oliver who was gone now, no matter what he’d done. She wondered if she should have called him after all while she still had the chance. Been able to say what she was feeling, gotten some closure. It felt like she was just left holding the baggage of their relationship, and the wreckage of the relationship to her sister.

“Sara,” Laurel said after what felt like an age. Her legs were burning from crouching for so long. “I want to forgive you. I really do. It- it’s just going to take some time, okay?”

Her sister sniffed loudly but nodded.

“So I’m gonna get you something, okay?” She left Sara and stepped into her room, quickly finding what she needed on Sara’s bed. When she returned holding the stuffed shark, her sister let out a shaky laugh and hugged it to her chest.

She started to leave, but Sara said, “Laurel?”

“Yeah, Sara?”

“Um, I don’t know if, if you want to hear this or if he really even meant it,” her sister began. Sitting there wedged between the tub and the closet, she looked so small. “But Ollie changed his mind about, about everything. He said it was wrong, doing that to you, and that he loved you.”

Laurel sucked in a breath and looked down.

“Like I said, I don’t know how much he meant it. But I thought you should know.”

“Okay. Thanks.” She turned and left the bathroom, leaning against the wall in the hallway and wiping her eyes.

Had he really meant it? At the end of his life, had Oliver still been the man she’d hoped he could be?

Whether he had or not, Laurel knew it was time to start facing the consequences of everything that had happened. She found her father in the kitchen looking through their cabinets for something to prep for dinner. Laurel walked up beside him and wrapped him in a hug.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you up so soon,” he remarked, wrapping his own arms around her.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you. And I talked to Sara.”

“That’s my girl.” She felt him kiss the top of her head. “Are you gonna be okay?”

Laurel heaved a sigh. “I don’t know. I guess I have to be.” She licked her bottom lip and said, “I think I want to go to the memorial.”

“You’re sure?”

“He was my friend, dad, even before we dated. And… I think I need to say goodbye.”

She went alone and sat alone, far in the back away from the two remaining Queens and Tommy at their side. He looked back at her once with a questioning expression but she just shook her head.

They each had a chance to pass by the headstones that had been erected on the Queen Manor property. Laurel passed by Mr. Queen’s stone and set one flower down there, then stopped in front of Oliver’s.

“I want to be able to just grieve you, Ollie. I want to be there for your family, because I care about them so much, and I want to be able to remember the good times with them. But all I can think about right now is how you and Sara hurt me, and how you nearly took my little sister away, too. I don’t know if I ever could have forgiven you for that.” Laurel blinked back more tears and drew in a breath. “But you didn’t deserve to die like this. It wasn’t fair to you or your family. It wasn’t fair to us. I can’t miss you, and I can’t be glad you’re gone. I don’t know what to do with all of this, except to just keep moving.” She dropped her second flower on the pile with everyone else’s and left the grounds. She didn’t stop to talk to anyone.

Tommy tried calling and texting a couple times, but she ignored him. She was terrified to learn whether he’d known Oliver’s original plan or not. The thought made her sick. Eventually the calls stopped.

She went back to class and pretended nothing was wrong, that she hadn’t known the local billionaire and his son who had died so tragically. Mrs. Queen must have kept her name out of the obituary, and as she’d only just started law school, none of her new classmates had met her late boyfriend. So she kept her head down and her mouth shut about it.

At home, Laurel took back some of her chores from her sister, though now there was finally a more equitable balance between them. Sara had always done whatever she could to avoid them in the past, but she seemed ready to take on some more responsibility now. Which was why Laurel talked their dad into letting Sara enroll in some community college classes to keep her education at least somewhat on track. Sara found herself a new bar to wait tables, one that was even slightly less gross than the old one, and it started to feel sort of normal.

There were still differences in Laurel’s life. One primarily being that she was single for the first time in years, and found that without Oliver she had seemingly lost most of their old friends from Balliol Prep. Laurel was in no hurry to start dating again; she couldn’t begin to think about putting that level of trust into another person, but it left her at loose ends most evenings. She ended up enrolling in a basic martial arts class instead; if she couldn’t protect her heart, she’d set up protections all around it instead to prevent anyone else from ever reaching it again. 

She avoided her mother like the plague. Out of anyone, Laurel just couldn’t understand her actions about the boat. Maybe Sara had thought herself in love with Oliver, but their mother had known Laurel had thought the same. Why encourage one of her daughters to pursue her heart if it was only going to break the other’s? Did her mother just not love her?

She didn’t think her parents were speaking much either, from what she could tell. Part of her worried about that, but she knew it was for them to navigate. At the least, she still felt like she had her father to talk to.

Though as the weeks turned to months, she thought about her former desire to move out more and more. As repentant as Sara was, Laurel could tell her sister was also starting to chafe being stuck at home with almost nothing to do besides school and work. So one evening, Laurel sat down on the couch beside her and opened up a book of listings.

“I’m thinking between the two of us, we could afford some of these places.”

Sara looked up from her phone. “Huh?”

“Apartments. To live in? We’re both suffocating here.”

“You… want to live with me?”

“I already do live with you,” Laurel couldn’t help pointing out with a smirk.

“No, but like, permanently?”

Laurel shrugged. Sara had been walking on eggshells around her for so long now that she was honestly kind of tired of it, even if she couldn’t bring herself to say she forgave her yet. But her sister seemed to understand, for she scooted over and took the listings.

“We should get something with a porch so we can have people over inside and outside.”

“I’m not interested in hosting crazy parties.” That was a life she was permanently putting behind her.

“Yeah, but a get-together maybe? You gotta be making friends at school.”

She hadn’t, though that changed after a partner assignment she completed with a girl in her class named Joanna de la Vega. Joanna was very level-headed and had a dry sense of humor that Laurel found she was far more inclined towards these days. But she wasn’t alone in making school friends as she soon found out.

Laurel and Sara had only moved in to their new apartment just three blocks over from the start of the Glades neighborhood when Sara came home one afternoon with a pinched look to her features. “Laurel, I need your help.”

Laurel crossed her arms, eyeing her sister warily. Her expression and tone said she was in some kind of trouble. “Help with what?”

“It’s this girl in my class. She’s been getting harassed by some guys on her walk home from campus. She won’t let me go to the cops about it. There’s like, no real evidence, you know?”

“And you wanted me to do what about it, then?”

“Well, something maybe like when those girls were bothering me back at Balliol.”

Laurel placed a hand to her forehead. “I can’t just — especially when there’s something you’re not telling me. I can see it on your face, Sara.” She’d learned by now to read her sister’s tells.

“It's nothing bad! It’s just, Yanira’s kind of undocumented,” her sister said, mumbling the last word.

“Oh.” Laurel’s defenses dropped. “Is she worried the police will want to check her papers?”

Sara nodded.

“Well I, I want to help, Sara. But I mean, we’re not kids anymore. You or I could get in serious trouble for threatening or fighting some random strangers.”

“I know that, but _please,_ Laurel. I really like this girl!”

The second after Sara yelled it, her mouth snapped shut and her eyes went wide.

“You mean, you _like_ like her?”

“Forget it.” Sara turned and started to walk back towards her room.

Laurel caught her arm, pulling her to a stop. “No! Sara, that’s — there’s nothing wrong with that. I just want to be sure I understand.”

Sara kept her eyes on the floor. “I mean, I really like talking to her. And I think she's cute, you know? Like my toes just wanna curl up in my shoes when she smiles at me and my gut feels funny.”

Laurel did know. It was how she had felt every day with Ollie, before he’d broken her heart and drowned out in the North China Sea to take it with him.

“I haven’t, like, asked her out or anything. But I like the idea of it. I really, it feels good liking someone like this.”

Laurel knew already that her mind was made up, whether that made her a pushover or not. “Okay. We’ll get these guys taken care of.”

\---

Sara tried to play it casual when she told Yanira she was heading out her way after class later that week. “Yeah, I’m meeting a couple friends at the Big Belly Burger a couple blocks over. I figure I can walk with you that far.”

“Sara, it’s fine, really. You don’t have to come with me. Nothing has happened.”

“Well, maybe this’ll make sure nothing _will_ happen.” She kind of hated how much she sounded like her father, but Sara had learned that men tended to do whatever they thought they could get away with. Especially if a woman let them, or even worse, went along with it.

As they crossed past Sara’s neighborhood into the Glades and as the sun dipped lower in the sky, she could tell that Laurel’s hope that just the presence of another person might deter the men was in vain. They came out of a bar and leaned on doorjambs and on telephone poles to leer at Sara and her friend.

“Hey, brought a pretty friend today!”

“C’mon, babe, why don’t you admit you like the attention? You keep coming past here.”

Sara’s hand balled into a fist, and Yanira had to catch her arm.

“Sara, no!”

“What’s the matter, honey? You want a fight?” The biggest of the men stopped lazing about and stood to his full height. Sara gulped but moved in front of Yanira.

Then behind him, she heard a familiar voice. “No, but I do.”

When the guy turned, Sara could see Laurel. If she hadn’t known this was the plan, she might not have recognized her sister; Laurel had on one of her ski masks from when she used to go on trips to the slopes with Oliver and Tommy Merlyn, the rest of her clothes were similarly black which she rarely wore on her own and there was something in her stance, a kind of energy that was electrifying.

The men stared for a couple moments before bursting into laughter. “You see this? Kitty thinks she’s Wildcat!”

Laurel’s eyes narrowed, and Sara watched with mouth agape as her sister flew into action. She didn’t know the moves, only that they were quick and seemingly powerful. The first two men Laurel’s fists impacted with were sent reeling. The remaining men quickly sized up the situation and retaliated in earnest.

“Get that bitch!”

“What- what do we do?” Yanira asked. Sara took her hand and pulled her back to stand around the corner of the nearest building so they could still see. “Wait here.”

“Sara!”

Laurel was still standing, and she felt a fierce rush of pride for her sister. One of the guys went running by her and Sara tripped him up with a foot. She backhanded him when he tried to get up, and he stayed down that second time. Then she made the rest of her way to the brawl between Laurel and the man who had threatened Sara with a fight.

Sara used the strap on her satchel to snag his arm, stopping him from delivering a punch to Laurel’s side. Laurel took the opening and jabbed him in the gut with a fist, which seemed to send the wind rushing out of him.

“I’d suggest you find a new bar to hang out at,” Laurel told him, sounding slightly out of breath.

“And stop bothering women just trying to get home,” Sara added. She smacked him in the head with her satchel. With a textbook in there, it was enough to knock him out.

She and Laurel met eyes, and her sister gave her a short nod before she turned and hurried away.

“Sara!” Yanira ran up to her. “Are you okay?”

“Totally. Those guys didn’t know what hit them.”

“I’m not sure I know what that was either, but… I’m glad. And I’m _so_ glad you were here with me, and that you weren’t hurt.” Yanira’s eyes were teary as she looked Sara over before suddenly pulling her into a hug.

Sara squeezed her back tightly, one hand in Yanira’s thick, brown hair, her stomach filled with the fluttering of butterflies. “Come on. I’ll walk you home the rest of the way now.”

Yanira nodded and slipped her hand into Sara’s as they left the remnants of the fight behind.

By the time Sara got home that night, Laurel had already taped up her hands and a bruise on her arm was yellowing. She took care in giving her a one-armed hug in thanks. “You were awesome!”

But her sister shook her head. “I was barely holding my own. Most of my martial arts classes are about calming the mind and letting the body flow through specific movements, not getting in street fights.”

“Okay. You still looked good to me. Kind of like… alive.” It had been a long time since Sara had seen that kind of light in Laurel’s eyes.

“It did feel good just letting my anger out,” Laurel admitted. “I still feel it from time to time. It comes and goes and I just…” She hit her open palm with a fist.

“Then maybe you should do more of that.”

“What do you mean?”

Sara forced herself to slow down and think. She didn’t like doing so normally, but this idea was pretty big. And looking before leaping wasn’t always a bad thing.

“I mean, you took on those guys, and I helped a little, and it made both of us feel better. _Plus_ it helped Yanira. That’s a win on all sides. So if we could find more stuff like that—”

“More harassment?”

“Yeah, or like, bad people. Crime and stuff. Wasn’t dad saying it’s up in the Glades this year?”

“Woah, slow down,” Laurel said. “You want to go around looking for criminals so we can beat them up? That’s completely illegal.”

Sara shrugged.

“And of course you don’t care.” Laurel sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Sara, I’m going to law school.”

“And what would your law school say about what was happening to Yanira before we stepped in? There something on the books that stops those guys?”

Laurel frowned, clearly bothered by that thought.

“You know we could do it.”

“It’s not about whether we could. It’s about if we _should._ And if we did, you’d need a lot more fight training under your belt. We both would.”

“That’s not a no,” Sara noted.

Laurel shook her head and stood up. “I’m going to bed.”

“Okay, let me know if you need anything!”

Sara passed by her sister’s door an hour later on her own way to bed, seeing a light through the small crack it had been left open. Laurel was going through some motions on a mat, her eyes closed as she seemed to move on autopilot. It was second nature to her.

Oh yeah. They were so doing this.

It was a week and one tentative date with Yanira — okay, a study session, but she was still feeling this whole girls scene out — later that Sara ended up spotting a flyer for a boxing gym on the cork board at the bar.

“You should check it out.”

“Yeah? What about you?”

Sara held up a second flyer advertising Muay Thai lessons. “I’m gonna check these out.”

“Well, what if I want to learn it, too?” Laurel asked, frowning. “I thought we’d take it together.”

“No, no, see this is how we get away with it. Cause dad’s gonna find out we’re taking classes. But if he only thinks you’re taking boxing and I’m taking Muay Thai, how’s he gonna guess either of us knows both?” Sara threw both arms wide in a shrug. “But what he _won’t_ know is that we teach those things to each other.” She’d spent a lifetime sneaking around and finding the loopholes to know how to make this work.

Laurel nodded slowly. But her remaining frown told Sara there was just one problem. “You realize we’re not going to be able to go out to do this at the same time? At least, not visibly.”

Sara chewed her bottom lip. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s probably right.”

Neither of them loved it. They wanted to be there for each other. But it would be pretty easy for their dad or any cop who knew their family well enough to put two and two together if they saw two girls using fight styles from the classes they were enrolled in.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Laurel said. Before Sara could argue, Laurel’s phone rang. Her sister looked at the caller ID with some surprise. “Hello? McKenna?”

Sara watched her sister’s face transform from confused to troubled. “No, it’s okay. I’m glad you called someone. You’re still in the room? Okay, lock the door and wait for me. I’ll call you when I get to the lobby.”

“That McKenna Hall?” Sara asked when Laurel hung up and went for her purse. “I thought you didn’t hear much from the old crowd these days.”

“I don’t, but she said she didn’t know who else to call. She woke up in a hotel room alone and doesn’t remember how she got there or what happened.”

“God…”

“Yeah. Listen, can you text dad to be on standby? I don’t know if she’ll want to make a report, but I’m going to encourage her to.”

“Sure. Keep me updated.”

Laurel got her old acquaintance to the hospital where she was looked over. They determined she’d been given GHB which explained her lack of memory from the night before. All McKenna knew was that she’d been clubbing as usual.

They hadn’t been able to recover DNA from the sexual assault — McKenna’s rapist had used protection. And the hotel wasn’t answering Laurel’s requests for information since they said they had to protect client privacy.

Sara felt a burn somewhere in the back of her throat just thinking about the creep that had slipped the drug into McKenna’s drink so easily. If something like that ever happened in her bar…

When she looked across at Laurel, who had her arms around a sobbing McKenna, her sister lifted her head as well. Sara could see the fire that burned in her, too.

“We’ll get whoever did this, McKenna, I promise.”

“I wish I remembered,” McKenna said with a sniff. “We were all out for a drink or two, cause of Oliver’s — it’s been a year since that boat accident. So we wanted to do something in his honor.”

God, Sara had totally forgotten the date. Laurel said nothing, and she wondered if her sister had known.

“Do you remember who all came out for it?” Sara asked. “We could ask around.”

“It was just the usual crowd. You know. Brian and Amanda, Tommy, hell even Carter showed up to buy one round. The old group except… I wish you’d been there. You would’ve stopped me from doing something this stupid.”

“This wasn’t your fault, McKenna,” Laurel said immediately. Sara nodded her head emphatically as well. First Oliver trying to use her for some sex on the side, then those men bothering Yanira on her walk home and now this. This city was crawling with creeps.

Laurel started calling all her old school friends the minute they got home. The only one who picked up was Tommy. Sara could tell by the number of times her sister said his name in exasperation.

“No, Tommy, I don’t have time for a quick lunch. I need to ask you a question. Yes, I know I haven’t talked in a while, but this is important, Tommy. Do you know who McKenna left with last night?” After a pause, Laurel said bluntly, “Because she was raped. What do you mean, ‘no she wasn’t’?”

Sara sat up on the couch with a frown.

“She has a date-rape drug in her system, Tommy. I don’t care what you all ingest for recreation, that doesn’t just make it in there by accident. Previous sexual encounters don’t make a difference! She doesn’t even remember who it was that did it to her, she was that out of it. That’s not consent.”

Laurel pulled her phone back and glared at it.

“Did he hang up?” Sara asked in shock.

“Yep. Right after he said he preferred the silent treatment to the lecture.”

Sara scoffed. “He probably doesn’t even remember last night himself.” If they’d been drinking in memory of Oliver, she doubted he would have been the least bit sober.

“Yeah, but I know he’s better than this. Maybe his dad’s been putting pressure on him to stay out of the news again.” Laurel frowned down at the phone, like she was contemplating calling Tommy back and trying to reason with him. Sara didn’t see why she should bother. If he didn’t want to help them move the investigation forward, he didn’t want to. They didn’t need any of those rich floozies.

“We’ll just have dad get a warrant to look at the hotel bill. Then we’ll get the bastard.”

Except, perhaps even more shockingly than Laurel’s old friends from the high-society life, their dad disappointed them too. “There’s no way I can get a warrant for this.”

“What?”

“Daddy, please,” Laurel tried reasoning instead. “The hospital ran a test and confirmed she’d been drugged. This is a clear case of rape.”

“It is, of a known party girl.” He sighed. “Look, I don’t like agreeing with no-goods like Merlyn in the least, but his reaction is gonna be the defense’s reaction and a jury’s, and every judge knows it. This hotel she woke up in serves a high-end clientele. Whoever this guy is will have the money to buy the best lawyers in town. Your friend would be getting dragged through the press for no reason.”

“No reason except to expose this guy,” Sara pointed out.

“People will make excuses. Look at how Queen’s remembered in this town.” When Laurel looked away, their father winced. “You know I hate letting you two down, but this is just how these things work sometimes.”

Sara’s shoulders slumped. She couldn’t believe it. All those times her dad had pulled strings or called in favors had made it look so easy. She’d thought he was infallible. Yet here, where it was perhaps needed most, he couldn’t do a thing.

“It’s why I didn’t want either of you hanging around those types, they just— Laurel, hey.”

For her sister was walking out of the bullpen.

“Honey, come on.”

“I’ll go after her, dad.” Sara quickly left as well, catching up to Laurel out on the street where she paced in front of the precinct. “So what now?”

Laurel’s fists were balled and that fire was back in her eyes. “We have to catch him, Sara. No one else is going to.”

Sara knew Laurel would use every tool in her arsenal to do so. The ones that aligned with the law, and the ones that didn’t. Suddenly, this wasn’t a fun rush or a new way to sneak around.

This was what they needed to do.

\---

Five years after Oliver Queen was shipwrecked and marooned on an island, he returned home. To a home that was far different from anything he had imagined.

His mother had remarried. His sister now participated in archery competitions at the state level. About the only thing that seemed the same was Tommy, who greeted him warmly in one instant and made a pass about Thea’s looks in the next. When Oliver asked to take their tour of Starling into the Glades, however, his old friend made a rather odd remark.

“We’ll want to be in and out. Definitely before it gets dark, cause the woman would love to get her hands on a couple of guys like us.”

“The woman?”

Tommy shrugged as he made a turn with the car. “This masked blonde chick that’s been running around the last few years. Some protector of women and the poor and downtrodden.” The way he said it was derisive at best. “Mostly she just beats the shit out of guys for any perceived offense.”

“And they haven’t caught her?”

Tommy shook his head. “Not yet. She’s good, I guess, whoever she is. Like I said, I stick to downtown if I’m having a night out.”

Oliver decided to leave the many questions he had for later research, not wanting Tommy to think he was overly interested in crime or some self-proclaimed fighter of it. “Well, it’s daytime and there’s something I’d like to do in the Glades.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“See Laurel.”

Tommy snorted. “What for? She shut me out, you know. We’d both just lost our best friend and she just stopped talking to me.”

Oliver closed his eyes. He’d never realized what he’d done might have even affected Laurel and Tommy’s friendship. “That was my fault. She probably didn’t think she could trust you after I… Tommy, I cheated on her.”

His friend sat back. “When?”

“It was complicated. And it didn’t end up — the point is, I broke her trust and with you being my best friend, she might have thought you knew.”

“Why didn’t I know?”

That gave Oliver pause. Tommy had been his old confidant at the time, his partner in crime. There wasn’t a dumb idea one of them had had that the other hadn’t helped them with. Maybe the fact he’d tried to hide his infidelity from even Tommy should have been the biggest sign to him of how wrong he’d been.

“I was ashamed.”

“And you think seeing Laurel will make you feel less ashamed?”

“She deserves an apology. That’s all I know. And maybe I can help smooth things over between the two of you as well.”

Tommy drove them to CNRI, a legal aid office for the underprivileged. It was just the sort of place Oliver might have imagined her to be, though he found himself puzzled by the small space allotted to her against one wall. There was only space for one photograph, and Oliver felt both surprise and relief to see it was one of both the Lance sisters with their father. Had Laurel and Sara made up in the years he had been gone?

Laurel herself sat at the desk, filling out what looked like a stack of forms, one pen in her hand while another speared a messy bun tied up at the back of her head. He hovered to the side until she looked up.

“Hello, Laurel.”

Laurel stood, backing up a step so the chair remained between them.

“I was hoping we could talk.”

With a slow nod from her, they ended up outside, strolling aimlessly down the street. “So, you’re alive.”

“Yeah.” He glanced around her. He wanted so badly to ask, but instead went with, “So what case are you working on? Looked like a lot of paperwork.”

“It’s paperwork for five cases, actually, none of which I would be at liberty to discuss with you.”

Oliver frowned. “They make you do five cases at once? How do you have time to attend all the court dates?”

Laurel shook her head. “I’m a paralegal, Ollie, not a lawyer.”

He blinked. “But… you wanted to be a lawyer.”

“Yeah, well I also wanted to move in with my boyfriend and get married someday, but things change. Wants, needs, they change. Sometimes against our will and sometimes because they have to.” She stopped at the corner and turned to him, waiting until he faced her as well. “Let’s talk about why you’re really here.”

He swallowed, but finally asked, “How much did Sara tell you?”

“Everything.”

Oliver nodded, even as his gaze dropped to the ground. It was better in some ways that it was all out there, yet at the same time he truly was ashamed. “Laurel, I’m sorry. I know that’s inadequate after all this time. I wanted to call you that night on the boat, but we were already out of range.”

“Were you sorry because you got caught or sorry because you actually meant it?”

A fair question. “Because I meant it.” He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “I still do. It was stupid and selfish of me, and I should have just been honest with you.”

“You should have,” she agreed. “I don’t know what you want me to do, Oliver. That island probably dealt you a lot worse than I ever can.”

That tugged a wry half-smile from him. “In some ways, maybe.”

“My anger burned out a long time ago. But you could’ve gotten my sister killed in that accident.”

And like that, the smile was gone again. “I know. I thanked God every day that I hadn’t.”

“So did I. I guess we still have some things in common.” She studied him for a moment. “For better or worse, I’m the woman I am today because of what you did to me. But I think you should go back to your family and friends, Ollie.”

It felt like a knife to the heart, but it was what she wanted. So he nodded again and turned to go.

A thought made him stop and look back. “For what it’s worth — Tommy didn’t know. I never told him. He’s missed you.” _Like I have,_ he kept himself from adding.

Laurel gave the slightest nod to indicate she’d heard him, then stuffed her hands in her pockets and spun on her heel in the direction of her office.

Oliver did not have long to dwell on the mixed reception from the woman he still loved. He and Tommy were attacked, which accelerated his plans for carrying out his father’s mission far more than he had wanted. He would be forced to begin going after people on the list to make his cover story about what happened to the kidnappers believable.

The top name on Laurel’s stack of files had been Adam Hunt. He felt that was as good a place as any.

Oliver attacked Hunt in a parking garage and gave him a warning as well as a deadline to pay up to the families he had hurt. He had Tommy book his return party in the building across from Hunt’s office in case the man refused his terms and he needed to take the money by force. Which he did after a brief discussion with Laurel, who had shown up to offer some kinder words. He should have expected she would, but now that the mission had to take priority, the further away from him she was, the better.

His attack on Adam Hunt was interrupted, though not by the police as he might have expected. They were still lagging behind, clearly not having quite believed a man in a green hood would fight his way to the billionaire’s office.

Instead, as he fired his fourth arrow at the chest of one of Hunt’s security detail, it was blocked by the swing of a staff.

A woman in black and a mask just as Tommy had described stepped into the moonlight glaring at him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She hissed.

“ _Didn’t think this was your area.”_

From what Tommy and the few scant news articles he’d been able to search up said, she spent her time busting petty theft and would-be muggers or rapists, not protecting a high-rise.

“It’s not, but since you so kindly announced your time and place—”

“ _You decided to become Hunt’s bodyguard?”_

“Freeze, both of you!” The security member she had saved from his arrow had at last snapped out of his stupor and had his gun leveled more at Oliver than her, but the woman turned and slammed her fist into his jaw, toppling him over.

“I’m their bodyguards. Everyone has to put a roof over their heads and feed their families. They didn’t steal from those people.”

“ _They work for the man who did.”_

“So you threaten him but kill them?” Her voice was pitched low, and he suspected she was making an effort to do so. A further way of disguising her identity, but clearly without the funds he possessed. “Guilt by association isn’t how it works in this city.”

He grit his teeth. This was wasting time, and she was in the way. He fired the wire-transfer arrow over her head to let it start its work, then charged her while she recovered from ducking.

His punch just missed, as she side-stepped and swung with her staff. Oliver blocked it with his bow, and they exchanged a number of blows this way. He snuck a lucky hit in that had her falling back.

But not because she was unconscious. Instead, she swept his feet out from under him with one leg, then she sprung up and ran as the office door was kicked open and a number of flashlight beams landed on him.

Oliver was forced to roll to his feet and jump through a window, firing an arrow with a line to slow and then stop his fall. He barely avoided crashing into the building holding his party, and had only the space of a few scant minutes to change back into his clothes before Detective Lance was storming the place. Oliver wished Laurel had stuck around long enough to help temper her father, but Oliver has clearly driven her away with their earlier talk. And Tommy was nowhere to be found, either. Probably off with some girl.

The next week, he was brought back to life legally, but his family seemed far more disappointed in the reality of him being alive than he had ever wanted. When Thea beseeched him to talk to someone, only one person came to mind; the same woman he had seen briefly helping one of CNRI’s lawyers with some last minute file additions at the courthouse that morning.

So Oliver made his way over to Laurel’s new — or at least new to his perspective — address. But Laurel wasn’t who answered the door.

“Sara,” Oliver said with some surprise. He should have realized they might be sharing an apartment, but Oliver truthfully hadn’t been ready to confront the younger Lance sister and everything that had nearly happened between them. He had no idea what to expect from her.

“Oliver,” Sara said. “Let me guess, looking for my sister?”

“Uh, yeah, actually,” Oliver admitted. There was little point denying it.

“She’s at Joanna’s.”

“Oh.” He’d met Joanna briefly in the courthouse earlier that day. She was working the Sommers case, so it made sense she and Laurel were coordinating on it. Perhaps he’d case the outside of Miss de la Vega’s home, just to make sure it wasn’t accessible to any of Sommers’ spies or worse. “It’s kind of late. I could give her a ride back here, if she wants.”

“What are you even doing here, Ollie?” Sara asked, her arms folded in a way that she had definitely picked up from her sister. “She told me what you said at your party. About staying away from you. How’s she supposed to do that when you’re seeking her out?”

He winced. “I know, I just… I realized at the courthouse today that it had hurt her. And then Thea told me that I should open up to somebody about what happened to me these five years, so…”

“And you think that somebody should be Laurel,” Sara guessed flatly. “Alright, let me tell you this once. You better make up your mind about what you want from my sister. Cause this back and forth shit? It ain’t gonna fly.”

Oliver swallowed. “I understand.”

“You better.”

The clink of metal on ceramic and feet padding down the hall announced the arrival of a brunette woman with light brown skin. “Sara, who’s at the door?”

“Nobody, babe.” Sara’s phone rang and she took it out. “I have to take this.”

Oliver’s eyes had widened for a moment, but Sara’s dismissive tone made it clear he wasn’t welcome to stick around, regardless of anything he’d just learned about the younger woman. He gave a polite nod to Sara’s girlfriend and headed back to Diggle waiting in the car.

“Back home, Mr. Queen?”

“Actually, if we could swing by one more place.” Another quick series of searches got him Joanna’s address. He still wanted to be sure Laurel made it home safely. She and Sara didn’t reside within the Glades strictly speaking, but they were near enough at this time of night to risk some sort of spillover.

There was a police car parked outside Joanna de la Vega’s apartment. That gave him some measure of relief until it occurred to him the officers seemingly hadn’t reacted to their car’s approach at all.

“Digg, can you go check on that car? I’m just gonna get a head start inside.” He got out of the car and jogged across the street before his bodyguard could argue.

By the time Oliver reached Joanna’s apartment door, it had already been kicked in. Two men in the garb of the Chinese Triad were working on a second door, which appeared to be reinforced on the other side. A woman with white hair was barking orders at them, but stopped when he entered the room.

Oliver stared at China White as she stared right back for a long, unbroken moment.

“Kill him.”

Before he could make a move to defend himself, a _crash_ came from the living room as a woman broke through the remaining glass to stand between him and the Triad members.

Black clothes, blonde hair and mask. Just as before. And yet—

“Go,” she told him shortly before engaging the attackers.

Oliver frowned and instead went for the bedroom door. “Laurel? Are you in there?”

“Ollie?” Her muffled voice called out.

He glanced behind him. The two Triad members were down, but China White had disarmed the woman of her staff and appeared ready to strike a killing blow. Oliver grabbed an umbrella from the stand in the hallway and hefted it in China White’s direction. It knocked into her shoulder, and she staggered back a step, glaring at him again.

Then a shot rang out and she was clutching at the same shoulder. She turned and jumped through the window, the woman in the mask in hot pursuit.

Diggle entered the room fully, gun still drawn. “Are you alright, Mr. Queen?”

“Yeah, all fine. Laurel? Joanna? It’s safe.”

A few moments and scraping of heavy furniture later, the door flew open and Laurel was in his arms. “What were you doing here? You could’ve gotten killed!”

“Yeah, you instead of us,” her colleague remarked.

“I was looking for you,” he admitted, brushing some of Laurel’s hair back from her forehead. “To apologize, again, actually.”

Laurel shook her head. “That definitely could’ve waited.”

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t.” He couldn’t resist kissing the top of her head briefly, the old feeling of her in his arms almost overwhelming. Soon enough, the police arrived to get their statements.

“Four different intruders, I believe,” Diggle said at one point. “Three of them were Triad, but the fourth I wasn’t sure about.”

“It was a woman,” Oliver supplied.

“The woman in black?” Diggle guessed, nodding his understanding.

Oliver nearly shook his head but just stopped himself. There was no way he could dispute his bodyguard’s claim without revealing his own identity, because how else would he know the truth?

That had been a totally different woman. A very good copycat. The outfit, weapons and fighting styles were all the same as he remembered from his brief skirmish with her in Adam Hunt’s building. But no two people made exactly the same calls in the heat of battle. Her temperament had been different, her voice not quite the same and something in the way she simply _moved_ felt off to him. Less familiar.

So why was this woman trying to pretend to be the same as the woman he’d met only a week ago? Or perhaps, who was pretending to be who?


End file.
